[highlynt]

I recently joined Google and it definitely didn't work that way. You aren't usually interviewing for a specific team, like with smaller companies. But once you get past the interview your recruiter works with you to find teams that you will be interested in. In my case I talked to 3 hiring managers that were all working on the exact type of project I expressed interest in. I've seen it work this way a bunch of times when hiring for my team since joining.

I'm sure it doesn't always work this way but from what I've seen it's certainly the intention.

[zzalpha]

But once you get past the interview your recruiter works with you to find teams that you will be interested in

That just confirms his/her point.

If you don't know what you'll be doing until after you've gotten through the recruitment process, it's blind placement.

[Eridrus]

There's a significant difference between this and what Facebook does where you don't know what team you will be on until after you join Facebook and complete their bootcamp.

[zzalpha]

So Facebook is even worse. Good for them!

[marssaxman]

I wish that such a process had existed in 2011 when I went to work at Google; my experience there might have been less miserable and consequently less brief.